Getting local businesses in on the action

It is in your best interest to get in touch with your local sporting goods vendors. Since you are running a tennis club you are in a position to send a lot of business their way. They, in turn, can likely offer you a good discount and are quite likely to be willing to help get word of your club around.

As you develop a good relationship with this business, who knows? They might be willing to donate or heavily discount prize items for competitions that you sponsor or more. Getting them involved with your tennis club just makes good sense.

Flyers are still popular for a reason

With your newfound local business friends you’ve got a great way to get your flyers out to the general public. Don’t stop there, however, as there are a number of other places where you can get your flyers or signs out in the public eye.

Make some friends at your local gym and consider posting information on bulletin boards at local schools. Local parks are another place to spread the word. People who are active frequent these places and will be happy to hear that there is something new they can participate in.

Offer discounts for younger members

Creating membership tiers is a good idea and you can always create something special for the younger members, especially the kids. Tennis clinics where they can work on their swing are good and easier to set up than private lessons. After all, you’ve got that club space, so why not take advantage of the free time that is available there?

Student discounts are also a good idea and you can even make them creative, perhaps offering the discount for new member ‘pairs’. Whichever way you market it, students are web savvy and can really help to get attention for your tennis club. Also, if you’ve got a good thing going then these are members that are going to stick around for a long time.

A discount now for years of membership? Definitely makes sense.

Facebook group with Tennis tips videos

While having a webpage is nice a quick way to get a web presence started is to simply create a Facebook Group for your tennis club. This gives you a way to blog about events, promote socialization, post-training videos, and to take on guest-members to get their curiosity piqued.

It’s an easy way to get started in developing a web presence and with social media, it is a lot more fun than reading an automatically-emailed newsletter. You can have one of those too, of course, but an interactive medium like Facebook will get you a lot more attention and gives everyone in the club a chance to invite their friends to the group to learn a little more.

Guest memberships

Consider marketing a ‘try before you buy’ type guest membership into your tennis club at least once per quarter/4 times per year. You can provide a 1-month guest membership and have a great time of it, offering your standard clinics and socials and letting the outside folks see what they are missing.

A few ‘Members vs. Guest Members’ tournaments with some of your best members playing can help to show how much prospective members can learn and between this and the socialization the odds are that your membership is going to increase. Give it a try and see for yourself!

Take advantage of Wimbledon

Hosting Wimbledon-watching events is a great way to get people socializing and to draw some attention to your tennis club. Make sure you’ve got a large TV or maybe even a projector to maximize the viewing experience and lots of good food to go with the fun.

It’s an easy and quick step from ‘guest’ to ‘member’ and one should never underestimate the drawing power of a good social event.

Set up a good referral program

Get your club members to actively refer and recruit by offering incentives, such as discounts, gift cards, or even prizes if you are running a yearly ‘recruiting drive’. Those local businesses are often quite willing to help in the prize department, so it never hurts to ask, but don’t limit referrals to a yearly event.

Put together a clear plan, print it out, and make sure that your members know. A little motivation can go a long way.

Don’t let good space go unused

You’ve got a lot of property associated with your tennis club, why not rent out some of that space when it’s not in use? Rooms that you have free can be used for parties, corporate-sponsored events, and more. Your tennis club can make some good revenue there and all you are doing just maximizing that free space.

Just a little something to think about

Some final advice on marketing your tennis club

Marketing is a constant challenge but it can be a little easier if you break your year down into quarters and plan which tennis club marketing strategies you will use by quarter. As you find out what works best for you then you’ll develop some marketing standards but don’t forget to mix things up a little.

Keep it interesting and your membership will keep growing. You can count on it!

Reference

– https://tennistribemarketing.com/how-to-grow-your-tennis-club-or-academy/ 

– https://courtreserve.com/5-tips-for-marketing-tennis-clubs-with-social-media/ 

– https://xspacenet.com/

1. Widgets and Plugins are Excellent.

This is one of the central reasons that WordPress is so highly valued by so many. The content management system’s implementation of Widgets and Plugins is utterly peerless. 

Widgets are little insertable elements that site visitors can interact with when they are on your site. This can include embedded video players, podcast players, photo galleries, and the like. There are a whole host of these little tools you can incorporate into your content and tend to help increase your site’s prominence, keeping your club members entertained on the site. 

Plugins are elements that get installed on your end, often helping with parts of content management, and editing. The unique and unparalleled flexibility that this offers makes WordPress a particularly attractive option.

2. Host and Visitor Friendly

The previous point plays into this one somewhat. For new website writers, WordPress is incredibly user-friendly, and the granularity of customization offered in Widgets and Plugins allows for fresher content creators to make it more so if they should desire. 

Not only that, but the themes that are applied to WordPress’ UI are always clean, distinct, and easy to use for site visitors. That means that no matter what age or competency your club members have, a WordPress site should always be simple to navigate and operate. 

3. The Themes of your Dreams

Another draw of the WordPress content management system are the gorgeous themes, both free and premium, you can access and customize your site’s aesthetics with. 

This means that your tennis club site will not be saddled with a boring, standard template that does not engage your members. Your tennis club site can be outfitted with some gorgeous and active themes that really bring out the energy you would want in a tennis-themed site. 

4. Built-In-Blogs

This feature is simple. Rather than needing to create your own blog section, WordPress smartly anticipates this need of the modern website and allows you to get publishing content as quickly as possible. 

The WordPress in-built blog in question is fast, responsive, readable on mobile, and has options for embedding other sites, videos, and media players in each post. Sites with a lot of blog content tend to do well in Google searches and other engines, as the more content you have for visitors to explore, the more activity is recorded on your site.

5. Get Your Site Ranking High: Grab New Customers Using Local SEO

Now, SEO functionality does not necessarily need to be the primary concern of a tennis club site, as a lot of your visitors will already be members of your club. However, locally-focused Search Engine Optimization can be an incredibly powerful tool to increase the amount of foot traffic your club will see – probably increasing your membership numbers!

WordPress sites tend to be well optimized for search engine ranking due to their quick response times and mobile loading speeds, but also has loads of SEO focused plugins that can help you in this regard. 

Yoast SEO is the most famous of these and provides some powerful free tools as well as comprehensive premium coverage. This can give you some compelling localized SEO options, which will be able to boost your ranking in local searches (which is proven to increase foot traffic to your business or club). 

6. Scale Nice on Any Device

Another key component of keeping your members engaged with and using your website is making sure that whatever device they are using their experience is as fast and efficient as possible. 

WordPress is optimized automatically for mobile, PC, and tablet usage. Every theme on WordPress’s marketplace must be able to scale across different devices, which means that no matter how you customize your tennis club site’s aesthetics, your members will always have lightning-fast responses when accessing your content. 

As an additional bonus here, having a fast mobile performance for your site means that you will rank better in all online searches, potentially aiding your club’s discoverability.

7. Community and Company Support

Last, but by no means least, is the community and company support offered by WordPress and its extensive user base. WordPress makes up 14.7% of the top 100 websites in the world, with 455 million different websites powered by WordPress. 

This means that the support you can get from the wider WordPress community is huge. Any problem you can think of has likely been experienced by another community member – and the fact that they’re still using the service implies that most minor issues are fixable.

References

– https://bluehost.com/blog/8-benefits-of-using-wordpress/ 

– https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/ 

– https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/ 

Keep a Consistent Identity

Straight out of the gate, it is hugely important that the design of your tennis club website is perfectly congruent with the design, aesthetic, and “atmosphere” of the club that you are promoting.

Any deviation from the branding of your tennis club in the real world on your website is going to create an immediate disconnect.

That disconnect is going to create just the smallest amount of discomfort and distrust, and it’ll be hard for people to visit the site and really think of it as an extension of your club.

Dial-in the colors, the graphics, and the overall layout of your new site to match your club in the “real world” and you’ll have a much better engagement for sure.

Optimize Your Tennis Club Homepage for Members and Visitors Alike

Secondly, it’s important to remember that your website is (first and foremost) a resource for your members, your visitors, and your partners.

Too often folks responsible for designing club websites create things that look beautiful, take advantage of the latest web trends, and overload their sites with content and features that no one is really interested in.

All that does is clutter the place up, tank engagement across the board, and negatively impact not only the website itself but the brand and reputation of the club as well.

Always – ALWAYS – consider your members, your visitors, and your partners before you make any decisions with your website.

Build everything with them in mind (“will this be interesting or important for them?”) and everything else sort of falls into place.

Get Your Members Onboard

The membership area of your tennis club website is likely going to be where all the “action” is, but that’s only going to be possible if your members have been properly onboarded and are excited to take part in this new online community.

The actual onboarding process should be facilitated through the club itself, reaching out (a number of times) to not only alert members to the new website but also letting them know that they are encouraged to join and be active on the platform as much as possible.

It’s never a bad idea to build in different components of the sites to drive engagement, either.

Community forums, membership boards, polls, contests, analysis, and more can all be used to encourage onboarding of your club membership, and participation will increase, too.

Use Social and Scheduling Tools to Drive Engagement

A properly designed tennis club website has a lot of opportunities to become the central hub for all kinds of social activities with your club, not only acting as a scheduling solution (complete with an always up-to-date digital calendar) but also as a social center itself.

Look for ways to create more interaction and engagement with memberships online and really fold them into the member’s area.

You’ll also want to tie your social media accounts into your website as much as possible, creating a real synergy across the board.

Leverage Opportunities for User Generated Content

User-generated content opportunities should be taken advantage of as much as possible.

For one thing, this guarantees that your site is always being updated which in turn drives engagement, interest, and activity. There’s nothing more of a turnoff than a club website that feels like a desolate graveyard.

Secondly, it frees your staff up from having to do the heavy lifting of populating the site with content on a regular basis all alone.

When members are driving the content push it’ll always be content that they are interested in as well. This avoids trying to read the membership’s minds about what they want to share, discuss, or engage in on the website as well.

Build Revenue Generator Opportunities

Lastly, it’s never a bad idea to build as many revenue-generating opportunities into the website as possible – so long as it never (EVER) interferes with membership or visitor access.

The last thing you want to do is plaster the homepage with all kinds of advertisements or sponsorships, making the website (and the club by relationship) look cheap in some way.

Run ads that are discrete, promote sponsorships on separate pages, and look for ways to tie the retail outlets of your club to the website for more effective revenue generation.

References

– https://www.wildapricot.com/blog/club-website-examples

– https://www.pitchero.com/en_US/user-guides/club-website/getting-started/design/design-a-club-website

– https://www.pitchero.com/en_US/user-guides/club-website/getting-started/top-tips/9-simple-steps

Benefits of an Online Reservation System

• You improve customer satisfaction. Customers will value the convenience, and may even be willing to pay more for your service. You also avoid overbooking, and the potential backlash of a customer who waited for too long.
• You can manage your manpower and resources. You know how many customers you will have that day, and can prepare your facilities and assign your staff.
• You can gather relevant marketing data. You can track and analyze bookings to know peak hours and peak days. You can also know which customers tend to book more frequently and can reward them for their loyalty, or identify customers who have left and retarget them for your marketing campaigns.

How to Choose an Online Reservation System for your tennis club

The best online reservation systems should have features that help the customer and your business. It should also be easy for anyone to use – because there is nothing more frustrating than a failed booking.

Here the questions to ask when choosing the right online reservation system for your business.

How smooth and intuitive is the booking process?

Not all your customers are Internet-savvy. For example, a tennis club may have retirees who rarely use their smartphones and aren’t used to booking or buying products online. The booking process must be so simple and seamless that your grandmother can use it.

Is it easy to view and change a booking?

Plans change. Customers may need to move or cancel their booking. They should be able to do this easily, and it should reflect in your system in real-time. If you have a policy about reservations (for example, a deadline for canceling events without having to pay a penalty fee) the system should also be able to notify the customer.

Can you add promo codes, smartphone notifications, and other special features?

Your business may have on-going marketing plans and customer satisfaction initiatives. Ideally, you can integrate these within your online reservation system. Not only will it be easier for you to promote your business, but from a marketing perspective, it creates a unified customer journey.

Is it mobile friendly?

People now access the Internet with multiple devices: computers, tablets, smartphones. Your website should be able to load and perform accurately on all gadgets.

Trends also show that most people use their phones to book appointments or buy products and services. A mobile-friendly website looks good on all screen sizes and loads quickly. That is very important because Google research has found that customers will leave a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.

So, an online reservation system has to be fast, or people won’t stay long enough to find out about its other features.

Is it affordable?

One reason why small clubs or businesses are wary of getting an online bookings system is that they’re wary of the cost.

However, providers like Court Reservation offer very affordable packages. You can have your online registration system for as low as $34.99 a year, or upgrade for more features at just $69.99 a year. You can also get additional savings by signing up for the Lifetime Membership.

Try your Online Reservation System now

Want to try it for free? You can download a basic version, and watch a demo so you can see how the features work. Visit Court Reservation for more information.

References

– https://bookingkit.net/blog/10-must-features-online-booking-system/

This tutorial is written for beginners. That means, you will learn how to build a website that you will be proud of, even without a programmer and web designer. WordPress is the most popular content management system for creating websites.

All you need is the following:

– STEP 1: Website hoster and domain – SiteGround
– STEP 2: Premium WordPress Theme – Divi
– STEP 3: Online reservation system – Court Reservation Plugin

Step 1 -Webspace & Domain for your tennis club website

Choose a web host to save your website on.

First, you need a web space and a domain for your future club website. To get one, you have to register your site with a hoster like SiteGround. Go to siteground.com and choose WordPress Hosting -> GET STARTED.

In this window you can select the “plan” of your website. The StartUp plan should be sufficient for your club page! After choosing the plan, you can choose a domain for your tennis club website.

Once you have found a suitable domain, all you have to do is fill in the order details and provide a payment connection. After you have clicked PAYNOW, the order is complete, and you have secured the domain and the appropriate web space. CONGRATULATIONS!

Before you start building your website, you should install a SSL certificate on your web space. SSL is a security certificate and if you don’t have one, a message appears in modern browsers that your website is not secure because the data is not transmitted in encrypted form.

To install one, switch to the Siteground dashboard (my.siteground.com) and go to the Hosting Plan tab. There you will find your address – with a click on MANAGE you will get to a menu for extras. There you select SSL -> ADD.

There are different SSL certificates. But for your club page, a free Let’s Encrypt is completely sufficient. So click SELECT and ACTIVATE so that the security certificate is installed on your web server.

In the meantime, you have probably received an email telling you to verify a domain. Follow the link and the description in the email to do this too!

STEP 2 – Now it’s time to build your tennis club website

Now you can finally start building your website.

Your website can either be accessed via the my.siteground.com dashboard, or you can enter the address of your site directly into the address bar of your browser. In order to log into the “backend” of your website, you have to add /wp-admin at the end of your internet address. For example www.demo-courtreservation.com/wp-admin.

You will now see this screen. Since we use our own theme, you can click EXIT here.

This is what the backend looks like. We now want to install our premium theme Divi in it. DIVI is probably the best WordPress theme that you can buy. In addition to the simple construction of the individual pages using the visual editor, the theme also offers a large number of ready-made pages which can easily be imported and then work away from them. Entire website projects can be implemented in just a few hours.

The theme can be purchased directly on its website. https://www.elegantthemes.com/join/

Choose the Yearly Access plan for $ 89 per year. The subscription can then be canceled. You can of course continue to use the theme, after your subscription has expired!

After completing the registration form, you can download the Divi theme in the members area!

We now switch back to our WordPress admin panel and install the theme that has now been downloaded. To do so, we look for Appearance -> Themes -> Add New -> Upload Theme in the side menu. There we look for the downloaded .zip file. After that we click Install and Activate.

Next, we can start building the first page. We go to Pages -> Create new page in the backend. We can now choose whether we want to create a blank page, where we want to create the content ourselves from scratch, or whether we import premade content and then adapt it to our wishes. Both are extremely easy and quick with the Divi Theme.

In this case we only want to create one page with the reservation system. Therefore, we start with a blank page in which we integrate our reservation system.

We select Start Building.

After the page is created we will first save it. We will come back to this point later and continue from there.

STEP 3 – Installation of Court Reservation System

Easy and quick integration of court reservation system. Further information on the setup is also under our Documentation section.

The next thing we want to do, is to install the plugin Court Reservation and integrate it into the page we have just created. We are therefore going back to the WordPress Admin Backend (top left -> Go to Dashboard). Under Plugins -> Add New we can search for and install new plugins. In the search line we look for Court Reservation. In the search results we can already find the plugin which we install and activate by clicking on Install Now and then Activate.

After successful installation, we can switch to the settings of the plugin (Reservations -> Settings -> Courts). The first “court” has already been created. By clicking on Edit, we can enter a name, opening hours and how much days the table will show.
In the tabs Settings and User Interface you can later adapt the reservation system to your individual needs. But first we want to include the reservation table in the previously created page. To do this, we copy the shortcode and switch to the WordPress frontend (top left -> Go to website).

We are back on the previously created page. With one click on Activate the visual editor in the upper black bar, we enter the edit mode. By clicking on the +, new elements can be created. We’ll first create a new row. In this row we can add a text element with another click on +.

In the pop-up window we insert our shortcode.

After clicking on the tick we see our reservation table for the first time.

Now only one area is missing. That is a login and register form,  where members can register, login or where some description can be put. To create a login area, we click again on the + in the middle of the row and select Login.

The modules can be moved using drag & drop. Don’t forget to save!

So you have finished your first page of your club homepage. Next you can create another page, upload photos, insert your own logo and create a menu navigation.

Have fun with the further creation of your homepage. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at [email protected].